


a second chance

by stansareterrifying



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Afterlife, Drowning, M/M, Suicide, josh is gay, this may be triggering for some i'm sorry, tyler actually has hair
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 17:27:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9134059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stansareterrifying/pseuds/stansareterrifying
Summary: joshler au, tyler is 19 and josh is 18.having committed suicide, josh finds himself stuck on earth as a ghost, unable to continue on to the afterlife. soon, he meets tyler, who tells him that the two of them must work together if they want a second chance at life, if not, they'll be stuck as unhappy ghosts roaming the earth forever.happy reading !!





	

**Author's Note:**

> my first joshler chaptered fic?? well ok here you all go then :))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this may be triggering for some, i'm sorry. please read with caution

josh stormed out of his house, not even bothering to put on a pair of shoes as he left, or even bother to close the gate. he was never coming back anyway, what was the point?

he started running and kept going, not caring where he was going or how long he was going to keep running. the rough gravel of the pavements poked mercilessly into the bare soles of josh's tender feet, but he didn't care. what were a few pricks on his skin when the pain within his heart was much greater? he didn't care anymore, soon he would be relieved of the terrible ache within his heart. it'll be over soon, he told himself repeatedly. the previous three years had been hard on him, if 'hard' was even an appropriate word for what he had been through.

he had been taunted with homophobic slurs every waking moment, his parents barely treated him as one of their own, his teachers whispered about him behind his back, and he could no longer go to church without being chased out by angry christians who claimed that he "would burn in the ashes of hell" one day. josh definitely believed in God - if there was even a God out there, as he had began to question.

"if God does exist," he spent many nights screaming to himself, "He wouldn't let me suffer through this. if He truly does exist, He wouldn't let this happen to me. why then, does He not set me free from this hell i'm living?"

he was running further from his home now, away from the hustle and bustle of his quiet town. once he reached the small river on the outskirts of town, he stopped running. he took a deep breath and took in his surroundings, knowing he was never going back. it was the very same river with the rickety wooden bridge hanging over it, the bridge that people would call "the love bridge" due to the amount of crazily intense makeout sessions that had occurred on that very bridge. unfortunately for josh, it was the very bridge that he had been thrown off by his cruel, unrelenting schoolmates three years ago, when his life had all gone down the drain. after all, that was where scum like him belonged.

he sat beside a tree in the shade, and in the cooling winds and soft grass, josh wept. he cried for the hell that his life had become, for how devilishly backward the world was, except that tears no longer fell from his eyes, and nothing was spilling out of him other than real and raw emotion. he remembered the days when his pure heart had been filled with happiness, before being tainted by the cruel remarks and actions of others.

somehow, his body had automatically gotten up and walked onto the rickety bridge, his steps uncontrollably shaken and weak. _the world is a cruel place_ , he thought to himself, _so i'm not staying here any longer_.

and with that, he climbed over the bridge and fell down into the icy cold water.

***

**darkness.**

that was the only thing josh felt as he descended into the murky depths of the water. the cold water bit sharply at his skin, threatening to drag him down, never to resurface again. josh's electric blue hair danced along with the currents in the river, painting a scene of depressingly dark serenity. he felt his last few breaths slip away, and closed his eyes and began to fade away.

people say your life flashes before your eyes before you die, and josh knew now that it was all true.

he saw himself at 3 years old, a young, innocent child with a smile that could light up anyone's world.

the memories progressed on to 6 year old josh, walking into school for the first time, thrilled by the new environment and all the people, the tall girls with painted faces, the boys whose souls were nothing but darkness, and what seemed like millions of other kids just like him, excited to learn for the first time.

however, at 13 years old, josh's parents split, taking away his precious smile, and replaced it with sad, sunken eyes and a face devoid of emotion. he saw the countless nights of him staying up and praying to God that his mother wouldn't leave, that it was all just a bad dream and it wasn't real. it wasn't just his mother who had moved away physically, his father seemed to have gone away mentally too. his mother had fought for custody for his siblings and won, leaving josh with nothing but a father whose soul had no love, and a house that was no longer a home.

josh saw himself, a sad teenager whose life was slowly sinking into a bleak pit of despair. the next few years hadn't been easy on him either. at the age of 15, josh developed an attraction towards one of his best and most popular friends, and after he had gathered up the courage to tell him about his feelings, his friend had backstabbed him, telling everyone about how josh was a "fag" and a "poof", before the news eventually spread to the whole town, and finally to his mother. josh had spent many nights wishing he could run away from life itself, until now when he was 18, he had finally gathered up the courage to do it.

he felt his last breath escape from him, and he felt himself slipping away...

...until he awoke, not alive but still breathing.

***

he swam to the shore, still in shock. how exactly had he survived? he had felt his soul slip away from his fragile body, felt darkness encasing him as he slipped away. he looked down at the river and saw a body of a young teenager starting to float to the river's surface. upon careful inspection, he soon realised that the boy was him. but how could it be? he was dead, for goodness' sakes.

suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him, jolting him back to his senses. "confused, huh? think you're dead but you're not? you're so confused it's adorable, in fact, you remind me of me when i passed on."

josh turned around to see a boy, no, a teenager like him, maybe 19 or 20 at the most. "are you talking to me? how can you see me? i-i don't understand, am i dead or alive? is that my b-body in the water, i-i don't understand, can you just-" he stuttered hopelessly.

the teenager chuckled, cutting josh off and ran his hands through his fluffy brown hair, before telling josh, "let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. what happened to proper manners? i know you're josh, so hi, i'm tyler."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY PRECIOUS JOSHUA WILLIAM DUN NONONONNONOO


End file.
